The are many service business, such as telephone line installation, cable television cable installation, new construction, maintenance projects, lawn care projects, landscaping projects, handyman services, home improvement services, delivery services, janitorial and cleaning projects that require accept a new job and dispatching workers to complete the new job.
There are many problems associated with dispatching such workers. One problem is that it is difficult to find a worker who is currently geographically closet to a new work location.
Another problem is that it is difficult to estimate how long it will take a worker to physically arrive at a new work location. Another problem is that it is difficult to monitor how many hours a worker actually spend on the new work project.
Another problem is that it is difficult to confirm that a worker has actually completed a new work product. Another problem is that it is difficult to confirm that a requirements of a new work project are correct for a given physical geographic location. For example, if a new work project included a request to maintain overhead telephone wires and the wires were actually underground and not overhead, the new work project should be canceled or adjusted.
Another problem is that it is difficult to timely send out an invoice when a new work project has been completed. Another problem is that it is difficult to have workers who are working on a new work project to update additions or removals of physical objects such as utility poles, wires, etc.
Another problem is that when excavation is required an excavator makes an excavation request and is typically required to manually provide information about the excavation site and manually select the site on a map. This often leads to errors where permission to excavate is granted at a wrong location and/or underground infrastructure components are not properly marked before excavation.
For example, the State New Jersey has recently established a One-Call Damage Prevention System (see e.g., N.J.S.A. 48:2-73 et seq. and enabling rules—N.J.A.C. 14:2). All operators of underground facilities are required to participate in the One-Call Prevention System. In addition, all excavators are required to notify the One-Call Damage Prevention System prior to any excavation activity.
All fifty States and most Canadian Provinces have similar laws, regulations, procedures and One Call Centers. Because the One-Call Damage Prevention System covers the entire United States, it has become part of the standard operating procedure for all excavators. Therefore, anything that can be done to ensure that an excavation mark-out is completed correctly and in a timely manner benefits the state and local governments as well as excavators.
As an example, the State of New Jersey has established a One Call Center (OCC) to function as the central point of contact and communications between the excavator and the underground utility operator. An excavator is required to contact the OCC and provide very specific information concerning the proposed excavation. This information is generally referred to as the “mark-out request.” The purpose of the mark-out request is to ensure all excavation is correctly identified and its physical relationship to underground infrastructure components can be determined and properly marked-out on a surface level.
The OCC accepts the mark-out request and creates an electronic ticket. The electronic ticket is forwarded to the various underground utility operators that may be impacted by the excavation. The utility operators are required to physically mark the location of the underground facilities in the field on a surface level.
There are a number of was to submit a mark out request to an OCC. In New Jersey, one of the methods is using the NJOCC ITIC web portal. The ITIC allows an excavator to fill out the request on line. The excavator logs into the ITIC web site, manually fills out the information required including a location for the excavation and manually picks map grids that overlay the location where the excavation is proposed. Errors can and do occur at with such manual entry of excavation data.
Thus, it is desirable to solve some of these and other problems associated with project management including excavation requests.